Tuesday, June 25, 2013

BUTTERFLIES FLUTTER BY

SWMBO and I went to Butterfly Wonderland today.

This is an attraction which features a 3-D movie about the migration of the Monarch butterflies to and from a forested spot in Mexico year after year; and an atrium full of living butterflies which fly around you, frequently landing on you. Both experiences are incredible. During the movie it feels like you could put out your hand and a butterfly would land on it. In the atrium they do. I had one land on the back of my arm and stay there all the time I was in the atrium. When we prepared to leave, he had to be shaken loose from my shirt. It must have been my colorful Hawaiian shirt that made him think it was a flowery forest.

Here are some of what we saw.

The atrium is kept quite humid, which makes it foggy at times and quite wet.

See those two blue butterflies in the center of the picture? They are the stars of the show for me. There are hundreds of them fluttering throughout the atrium. It's hard to catch a photo of them because when they light they fold their wings and the underside is a plebian grey and brown. But I got one good picture of one in an unfortunate way. Apparently somehow this one had died and was lying on the paved path with his beautiful blue wings spread.

I think I'll have some more photos tomorrow if my "smart" phone can manage to send them to my computer.

In the meantime, here's a question that has plagued me for years. Why were they named butterflies and not flutterbys?

For some reason...can't remember why now...a butterfly, or flutterby if you prefer, migration came right over my house one Sunday morning. It should have been a hundrred miles in some other direction, but it wasn't, and I got to see MILLIONS of beautiful butterflies floating by. It was quite spectacular. ;)